Yang-Baxter operators in symmetric categories

Abstract: We introduce non-degenerate solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation in the setting of symmetric monoidal categories. Our theory includes non-degenerate set-theoretical solutions as basic examples. However, infinite families of non-degenerate solutions (that are not of set-theoretical type) appear. As in the classical theory of Etingof, Schedler and Soloviev, non-degenerate solutions are classified in terms of invertible 1-cocycles. Braces and matched pairs of cocommutative Hopf algebras (or braiding operators) are also generalized to the context of symmetric monoidal categories and turn out to be equivalent to invertible 1-cocycles.